


Undyingly Aware

by Thunder_Owlysa



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Adorable Papyrus (Undertale), Cinnamon Roll Papyrus (Undertale), Depressed Sans (Undertale), Determination (Undertale), F/F, F/M, How Do I Tag, M/M, Nonbinary Chara (Undertale), Nonbinary Frisk (Undertale), Other, POV Third Person, POV Undyne (Undertale), Papyrus (Undertale) Knows More Than He Lets On, Post-Undertale Pacifist Route, Post-Undertale Pacifist Route - "I want to stay with you.", Protective Sans (Undertale), References to Undertale Genocide Route, Sans (Undertale) Has Issues, Sans (Undertale) Has Night Terrors, Sans (Undertale) Has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Sans (Undertale) Needs a Hug, Sans (Undertale) Remembers Resets, Sans Angst (Undertale), Sans has Nightmares (Undertale), Tags Are Hard, Undyne (Undertale) is a Good Friend, Undyne Remembers Resets (Undertale), Undyne is a confused fish, Worried Sans (Undertale), sans needs therapy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-22
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:35:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24322147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thunder_Owlysa/pseuds/Thunder_Owlysa
Summary: What if Undyne were to suddenly remember the RESETs? Well, not immediately, of course, but slowly, over the course of multiple RESETs.She definitely wasn't going to keep quiet about it, and I'm personally basing this story of a what if that appeared in my head due to a random thought about how she has Determination, enough to let her not die/dust for a period of time, but not enough to bleed like Sans does (I head canon Sans to be bleeding Determination in dis -w-;) or remember RESETs. But what if she were to suddenly, slowly but surely, be able to remember the RESETs?
Relationships: Alphys/Undyne (Undertale), Chara/Asriel Dreemurr, Sans/Toriel (Undertale)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 104





	1. Chapter 1

They were all staring into the beautiful view of the sunset, enjoying every single moment of this unforgettable sight in front of them, Undyne and all her friends standing together on the Surface for the very first time and seeing the Sun for the very first time. The fiery red sun was gorgeous as it descended beneath the mountains slowly, its glare dying along with its descent. Undyne breathed in the fresh Surface air yet again, wondering how she had managed to live this whole time never having breathed something like this before. She looked down at her newly made human friend, thinking about how glad she is that she didn’t kill them. The punk was the reason they were all free right now, after all. She looked over at Alphys, who was staring at the setting Sun in awe. Come to think of it, how did Sans know what the Sun was? She was pretty sure the only 3 people who were there right now are the only ones capable of knowing that, seeing as how Frisk was a human who grew up on the Surface and Asgore and Toriel both being old enough to have had been alive long before the war between humans and monsters even happened.

She simply shrugged that question off, letting it linger around in the back of her mind as something she would ask Sans about later, whom would no doubt answer with some ridiculous pun. You know what, screw it. He’s probably not gonna give an answer that would answer the question anyway, so why even bother asking. Abandoning that train of thought, she looked over to said skeleton himself. If she had looked a moment later, she would’ve missed the slight frown he was showing. Under his eye sockets were large eyebags, which is surprising given how lazy he is and how much he sleeps in a day. Undyne herself frowned. Why was the punk frowning? If anything, shouldn’t he be happy right now? All of monsterkind were just freed, and he along with her and their friends were the lucky few who had managed to become Frisk’s closest friends, allowing them to have been the very first few monsters to have seen the Surface! He should be overjoyed right now! Undyne mentally shook her head and cleared her thoughts once more, focusing onto her best friend who was next to him next instead.

Papyrus was, if anything, the most innocent creature she ever had the pleasure of meeting and becoming friends with. Not only that, but the guy was really pure hearted. Undyne doubted he would ever be capable of even hurting a tree if it came down to it. Or even plucking a single leaf out of the tree, actually. Seeing his huge grin made her grin wider, baring her sharp teeth.

At some point of time, she followed Alphys off the mountain shortly after Papyrus went off first, wanting to ‘make a good first impression on the humans’, with Sans following soon after. Except, he headed in the wrong direction, the way back into the Underground. That guy never really made much, or any, honestly, sense anyway. She was talking with Alphys about something anime-related and then-

*RESET*

Undyne woke up in her bed in the Underground. Yawning, she started to get dressed for the day. She had a feeling that today was going to be special, she just knew it. Maybe the final human soul they all desperately needed to escape this place would finally arrive today, and they would all finally be free! Suddenly, as she was brushing her teeth and tying up her hair, a scene played out in her mind. Suddenly, she saw all around her was grass as she and Alphys were walking down a mountain, chatting about anime. When the flashback(?) finished, she was wide-eyed, wondering what the hell that was. “Holy shit...was that the Surface I just saw myself on!?! But that’s impossible!” She said aloud to no one in particular.

Just then, her phone started to ring. She picked it up. “Hello?”

“HELLO UNDYNE! WHERE IS OUR TRAINING TAKING PLACE TODAY? ARE WE GOING TO MAKE SOME MORE SPAGHETTI AGAIN?”

“YOU BET WE ARE NERD! Same timing, at my place! Don’t be late!”

“YOU KNOW I WON’T BE LATE, UNDYNE! DON’T BE SILLY! NOW, I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, SHALL BE GOING ON MY PATROL NOW! SEE YOU LATER AT OUR TRAINING SESSION, UNDYNE!”

“See ya, punk!”

Undyne then ended the call, already having forgotten of the memory she just remembered before Papyrus had called her. She then went on to make breakfast and continue to get ready for her day. She just had a feeling today was going to be really special, she just knew it.

**Time Skip**

They were all staring into the beautiful view of the sunset, enjoying every single moment of this unforgettable sight in front of them, Undyne and all her friends standing together on the Surface for the very first time and seeing the Sun for the very first time. Wait, hadn’t this happened before..? Was it the first time she had seen this view? She shook her head. It was probably nothing. Looking back up, she admired once again about how fiery red the Sun was as it descended beneath the mountains slowly, its glare dying along with its descent. Undyne breathed in the fresh Surface air yet again, wondering how she had managed to live this whole time never having breathed something like this before. But she vaguely remembers having breathed of this same air before, not too long ago..? She looked down at her newly made human friend, thinking about how glad she is that she didn’t kill them. Wait, was Frisk a newly made friend? Haven’t they been friends since some time ago already? The punk was the reason they were all free right now, after all. She looked over at Alphys, who was staring at the setting Sun in awe. Come to think of it, how did Sans know what the Sun was? She was pretty sure the only 3 people who were there right now are the only ones capable of knowing that, seeing as how Frisk was a human who grew up on the Surface and Asgore and Toriel both being old enough to have had been alive long before the war between humans and monsters even happened.

She simply shrugged that question off, letting it linger around in the back of her mind as something she would ask Sans about later, who would no doubt answer with some ridiculous pun. You know what, screw it. He’s probably not gonna give an answer that would answer the question anyway, so why even bother asking. Abandoning that train of thought, she looked over to said skeleton himself. If she had looked a moment later, she would’ve missed the slight frown he was showing. Under his eye sockets were large eyebags, wait, why did they seem heavier and darker than she last remembered? Why did he even have them at all anyway, considering how much he sleeps. Undyne herself frowned. Why was the punk frowning? If anything, shouldn’t he be happy right now? All of monsterkind were just freed, or were they already freed some time ago? And he along with her and their friends were the lucky few who had managed to become Frisk’s closest friends, allowing them to have been the very first few monsters to have seen the Surface! But why did this not feel like her first time seeing this sight and the Sun? He should be overjoyed right now! Undyne mentally shook her head and cleared her thoughts once more, focusing onto her best friend who was next to him next instead.

Papyrus was, if anything, the most innocent creature she ever had the pleasure of meeting and becoming friends with. Not only that, but the guy was really pure hearted. Undyne doubted he would ever be capable of even hurting a tree if it came down to it. Or even plucking a single leaf out of the tree, actually. Seeing his huge grin made her grin wider, baring her sharp teeth.

At some point of time, she followed Alphys off the mountain shortly after Papyrus went off first, wanting to ‘make a good first impression on the humans’, with Sans following soon after. Except, he headed in the wrong direction, the way back into the Underground. That guy never really made much, or any, honestly, sense anyway. She was talking with Alphys about something anime-related, thinking, ‘Wait, didn’t I have this conversation before already?’ She was about to ask Alphys when-

*RESET*

Undyne woke up in her bed in the Underground. Yawning, she started to get dressed for the day. She had a feeling that today was going to be special, she just knew it. Maybe the final human soul they all desperately needed to escape this place would finally arrive today, and they would all finally be free! Suddenly, as she was brushing her teeth and tying up her hair, she froze in shock, dropping both her toothbrush and hairbrush to the floor as she remembered. ‘Haven’t I lived this day already..?’ She thought to no one in particular. She interrupted from her thoughts when she suddenly remembered that Papyrus was about to call her. Wait, how did she know that?-

Just then, her phone started to ring. She quickly went to pick it up. “Hello? Papyrus, is it you?”

“HELLO UNDYNE! YES, IT IS I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WHO YOU ARE TALKING TO! WHERE IS OUR TRAINING TAKING PLACE TODAY? ARE WE GOING TO MAKE SOME MORE SPAGHETTI AGAIN?”

“YOU BET WE ARE NERD! Same timing, at my place! Don’t be la- Wait, I already know you’re not gonna be late! If anything, you’re gonna be early, so nevermind! By the way, do you remember having already had this conversation already? Because it felt as if I had this conversation with you before many times!”

“I DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT AT ALL, UNDYNE. BUT NO, I DON’T THINK WE HAD THIS CONVERSATION BEFORE. NOW, UNDYNE, IF YOU DON’T MIND, I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, SHALL BE GOING ON MY PATROL NOW, OR I’M GOING TO BE LATE! SEE YOU LATER AT OUR TRAINING SESSION, UNDYNE!”

“Huh, really? Okay then, must’ve just been my mind playing weird tricks on me. See ya, punk!”

Undyne then ended the call, more puzzled than ever. She must’ve somehow managed to predict whatever that was going to happen today vaguely, and while she could remember most of the beginning of what she was about to do today from what her dream-of-the-future-prediction, she only vaguely remembered the rest of the day from noon onwards, and already forgotten everything she envisioned in her dream from late afternoon on. She had a feeling today was going to be special however, she just knew it, somehow. Her gut feeling was telling her just that.


	2. Sans's POV

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter is mainly focusing on Sans's pov and- yeah- I'll make my fanfics available on Wattpad as well soon- my name there's Thunder_Owlysa

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just wanna say- wow- i didn't expect so many kudos and bookmarks from juz the first chap alone for this fic- so tysm guys!! ;0; sorry for the v slow updates for all my fics, i write rlly slowly and get writers block more often than i do with art block qwq;  
> Anyways, enjoy!

Sans looked at the setting Sun. He made sure his grin was a little wider as he glared at the beautiful scenery laid out in front of him. It used to be beautiful in his eyes. Now, it was just a mocking reminder of how he would never stop seeing it. How he would never be free of the RESETs. Of how he would be trapped in these endless loops for the rest of time, not even being allowed to die, nope. He wasn’t allowed the privilege of even death. For just a moment, he frowned at the Sun, something he used to enjoy and love. He now hated the Sun, he hated the stupid scenery that used to be beautiful. He hated how he remembers, and how he can’t just be blissfully ignorant and unknowing as his friends and everyone else were.

Most importantly, he hated himself the most, how he couldn’t do anything, or wouldn’t even try to do anything, to save anyone. How he would only ever take action at the end, after everyone had been killed.

He hated how he can’t even at least be able to die, or at the very least, die properly.

As he watched Papyrus sprint off the mountain, he got himself ready for the RESET that is inevitably going to come as he monologues off his script’s last few lines for the Pacifist run. He felt the world RESETting just as he headed back into the Underground. Sans closed his eyes, waiting for the feeling of the world shifting to stop before opening them again to discover himself back in his room. He briefly wonders over whether if this would be a Pacifist, Genocide, or Neutral run this time, when he heard Papyrus’s usual loud and boisterous voice coming from the kitchen, waking him up. He responded with a lazily practiced “i’m comin’ bro” that sounded convincing enough that wouldn’t make anyone question if he had said those words before millions of times, or if he had relived this day millions of times, having seen about every possible outcome today would bring, or if he himself hadn’t helped a murderous genocidal thing that is disguised as a child go on a murder spree, if he hadn’t gone on one himself just to gain more L O V E than the thing to defeat it. He met with Nightmare’s Gang a while back, and he misses them, wondering if he should’ve taken Core Frisk up on their offer to live in the Omega timeline with the other Sanses, Papyruses, and everyone else who were either there to visit, or because their own AU had been destroyed and they had survived, or simply because they couldn’t stand the genocide runs anymore. He definitely would bring Papyrus along with him, but then would have to explain about the RESETs, AUs, and everything else. So nope, not gonna do that, because he's tried telling Papyrus about them before, and every single time he would always get sad and pitying looks from him, and it would be his fault Papyrus's usual bright *real* cheerfulness would be gone.

Sans made his way downstairs and was greeted with the smell of burning spaghetti that at the same time still would taste delicious anyway. But of course don’t ask him how he knew how the spaghetti would taste like already when it wasn’t even done being cooked yet. He vaguely hears Papyrus’s usual conversation with Undyne over the phone, patiently waiting for the spaghetti before they head out to their sentry stations. Sans, of course, would be heading over to the Ruins’ door immediately already, to wait for Frisk to emerge and, more importantly, to see if Toriel’s dust was there or not, determining the fate for this timeline.

**Time Skip and another RESET later**

Sans opened his eyes to find himself in his bed once more and the bags under his eye sockets darker in colour. What was the kid even trying to achieve really? He was grateful that they had stopped doing genocide runs already but what is it that they were planning to achieve by doing a pacifist run over and over and over and over again and again and again and again only to RESET once more and repeat the cycle again? To break his sanity? He used to think that the Genocide runs were bad, but now even the Pacifist runs were starting to be bad. He doesn't know which one is worse anymore really.

Sans sighed as he mentally forced himself out of his bed and threw on his jacket, hiding the death scars given to him by both Frisk and himself, feeling over his uneven bones as he quickly located his sharpened miniature bone attack he hid under his bed and shoved it inside his pocket. He had a feeling this timeline isn’t going to be a good one for him mentally-speaking.

He headed downstairs as usual and was greeted with the smell of- hold on, why can't he smell any burning spaghetti? That’s weird, did something change this timeline? He was sure every single time by the time he had gotten out of bed and went down Papyrus would’ve been halfway done with cooking the spaghetti already by now. He smacked himself when he realised he had left his room earlier, before Papyrus had called him down.

He set himself down on the couch, slouching as he looked over at Papyrus getting the ingredients for his spaghetti breakfast ready. He saw Papyrus take out his phone and dial Undyne’s number, about to call her when he noticed him on the couch and put his phone down. “OH HELLO BROTHER! YOU’RE UP EARLY FOR ONCE! I WAS ABOUT TO CALL UNDYNE, BUT I’M SURE SHE’S FINE WITH WAITING A WHILE!” ‘shit’ Sans thought. First he disrupted this timeline by being up earlier than he was supposed to be already, and now he’s causing the daily call between Undyne and Papyrus to be later than usual, hence causing them to end the conversation later than usual, which would all in all ultimately cause the events in the timeline altogether to all end up happening later than usual. Sans mentally cursed at himself and inwardly cringed. How big of a screw up can he even be? He can’t even do something that had been quite literally drilled into his bones - heh - from millions of repeats of those same events right!

As he continued berating himself in his head, he gave Papyrus a huge grin, “nah, don’t leave her hangin’, go ahead and call her. if not, i think she gill end up whale-dering when you’re gonna call.” Sans threw in some puns for an extra precautionary measure. They certainly weren’t one of his better ones, but he’s told worse puns than those (blame my inability to make puns I love them but I can’t pun T^T). Papyrus ends up stomping his feet and saying something along the lines of ‘UGHH I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU SANS! THEY DON’T EVEN MAKE MUCH SENSE!” before dialling Undyne’s number once more and calling her.

Sans just grinned at Papyrus before turning on the TV and just flipping through the limited number of shows that were available for watching.

**Time Skip Again Because I'm Outta Ideas Here qwq;**

Sans hid behind a tree as he watched Frisk emerge from behind the Ruins' door. As he watched them disappear from his view, he quickly teleported to the door and saw Toriel's dust. Welp, looks like this timeline's gonna be either a Genocide or Neutral run. Most likely Genocide. Sans sighs as he teleported a little further down the road. He steps on the twig and makes a loud sickening cracking sound and walks up towards Frisk, approaching them slowly. "H u m a n." he begans, "D o n ' t y o u k n o w h o w t o g r e e t a n e w p a l ? T u r n a r o u n d a n d s h a k e m y h a n d ." Sans held his hand out as he watched Frisk turn around and shake it. There was a loud farting noise before a long stretched moment of silence ensued soon after. "heheh...the old whoopee cushion in the hand trick. it's ALWAYS funny." Still silence. "..." Sans awkwardly puts his hand back into his pocket as he took the other one out and starts rubbing his skull with it. "that's, uh. your cue to laugh." he said, looking away from Frisk. Winking at them with his right eye, he continued, "or, uh, to emote at all…?" Looking away, Sans thought to himself, 'gee, lady, you really know how to pick 'em, huh…?' Shaking his head as he focuses back on the current here and now, he looks at Frisk again as he grins and says to them winking with his right eye once again, at this point almost as if he were talking to himself since they're not replying or anything, "OK, that's fine. everyone's got their own sense of humour." Shrugging, he continues on, "i'm sans. sans the skele-" he was then suddenly interrupted by Frisk, who just then eyes opened, revealing crimson blood-red eyes, and their neutral facial expression was suddenly stretched back into a grin. Sans eyes widened. He knew who it was now.

Chara.

Sans's left eye flared a bright cyan blue flame as he used blue magic on the demon that has Frisk's soul, holding them in place. Chara started talking, "Heya Sansy~ Did you miss me? Because I sure missed you. Hey, I have a new suggestion for this timeline since I finally gained back control from our little Frisky here. Let's say...Why don't I kill you first this time round? I'm curious so as to how Papyrus and everyone else would react. Or would you rather join me as my partner-in-crime like your friend Killer, was it? Oh, the endless possibilities! But nah, I think what I want to do this timeline, is to first kill off everyone except for you and Papyrus. Then, let Papyrus know of all the LIES you have told him, and about the RESETs, before slowly, painfully, ripping his limbs apart. O n e b y o n e. And I will make sure you watch the entire process as he slowly and a agonizingly t u r n s i n t o d u s t, helpless to do anything but watch. After that? You'll be mine for as long as I want, and do whatever I want you to do. Forever. You'll be my pet! And before you know it, you'll be begging to be killed, only for me to RESET and do the same thing over, and over, and over again."

Sans winced in disgust at them, knowing full well this has definitely happened before to him, another copy of him, in another multiverse, or heck, a copy of his universe. He's determined to make sure that that never happens to him. "heh. that would only ever happen in your dreams Chara." He spits their name out with venom. 

Still keeping Chara in place with his blue magic, Sans looks over his shoulder down the rest of the path towards Snowdin past his sentry station that was only a few metres up ahead. "listen, buddy, i don't like you, you don't like me, and that's fine. so you currently have three choices right now. one, reset, and give Frisk back control, two, continue acting like you're a human until Frisk gains back control, and three, give Frisk back control of their body. because Paps is about to come our way as you already know, so i'd appreciate it if, y'know, do me this one favour and continue pretending to be a human." At that, Chara only simply laughed, and, to Sans's surprise, agreed with him. "Alright Sansy, I'll let you have your way for now. There's now a new anomaly who joined us, so I'm more focused on seeing how much she can bend before she breaks like you did."

At that, Chara started skipping down the rest of the way, saying nothing else to Sans, who's now frantic for answers. 'Who is this 'new anomaly'? Chara mentioned that they're a 'she', but Frisk is non-binary, and so are they, and Flowey most definitely isn't a girl, and neither am I, so who the hell are they talking about!? Are they just spouting nonsense now to mess with me?!' snapping out of his thoughts, Sans quickly teleported to where Chara is and stored his thoughts away in a corner of his mind for later. Right now, his main focus is to prevent that demon-child from killing any monsters, and most importantly, Papyrus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't forget to sub to me on YT, im called Thunder Owlysa there too ^w^  
> And Instagram, and Amino, and Tumblr- all under the same name -w-


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